How can I elegantly handle devise's 401 status in AJAX?

Question

With devise one uses before_filter :authenticate_user! to restrict access to authenticated users only.

When an unauthenticated

Answer 1

You can use the .live on the "ajax:error" event binding if you are doing ":remote => true".

$('#member_invite, #new_user')
        .live("ajax:success", function(evt, data, status, xhr){
          $.colorbox.close();
        })
        .live("ajax:error", function(evt, data, status, xhr){
          alert("got an error");
        });

where the "#new_user" would be the form ID value.

Note that a more elegant way if you already have an overlay or dialog is simply to insert a message, so instead of alert():

$('.messages').html('Invalid email or password');

and in your signin form you just do a

Or you could even just replace the title of the form, what ever your needs are.